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What a Motley Crue of "hopeful mayoral candidates." See the old timer with the hat? How about the other guy with a "skullet?" Embarassing, $500 bucks and a 100 signatures? I can shave a monkey, through a tux on him and promote him. Same league as half of these Jabroni's....lol..

What a Motley Crue of "hopeful mayoral candidates." See the old timer with the hat? How about the other guy with a "skullet?" Embarassing, $500 bucks and a 100 signatures? I can shave a monkey, through a tux on him and promote him. Same league as half of these Jabroni's....lol..

This might be the first year since 2004 that I don't vote in a civic election. I don't really care if the same duds get elected or if a new crop of duds take their spots. And there are no major issues to settle this time like the downtown arena or City Center Airport closure.

This might be the first year since 2004 that I don't vote in a civic election. I don't really care if the same duds get elected or if a new crop of duds take their spots. And there are no major issues to settle this time like the downtown arena or City Center Airport closure.

This might be the first year since 2004 that I don't vote in a civic election. I don't really care if the same duds get elected or if a new crop of duds take their spots. And there are no major issues to settle this time like the downtown arena or City Center Airport closure.

Then go vote for someone who has a pet project that interests you.

or go and spoil a ballot as an expression of how you feel about the available options. too many people forget that they also count spoiled ballots. can you imagine the slate and the campaigns four years from now in a ward - or a city - that tallied more spoiled ballots than the number of ballots that elected someone?

or go and spoil a ballot as an expression of how you feel about the available options. too many people forget that they also count spoiled ballots. can you imagine the slate and the campaigns four years from now in a ward - or a city - that tallied more spoiled ballots than the number of ballots that elected someone?

This is my plan today. I'm gonna go vote (and bring my wife along so she can see how it's done in Canada), but there's no way in hell I'm throwing my support behind any of the available crop of rotten choices.

Giving less of a damn than ever… Can't laugh at the ignorant if you ignore them!

This might be the first year since 2004 that I don't vote in a civic election. I don't really care if the same duds get elected or if a new crop of duds take their spots. And there are no major issues to settle this time like the downtown arena or City Center Airport closure.

Then go vote for someone who has a pet project that interests you.

or go and spoil a ballot as an expression of how you feel about the available options. too many people forget that they also count spoiled ballots. can you imagine the slate and the campaigns four years from now in a ward - or a city - that tallied more spoiled ballots than the number of ballots that elected someone?

I honestly don't know how to spoil a ballot..I've never had to...so, how do you do it? Does it really make a difference?

This might be the first year since 2004 that I don't vote in a civic election. I don't really care if the same duds get elected or if a new crop of duds take their spots. And there are no major issues to settle this time like the downtown arena or City Center Airport closure.

Then go vote for someone who has a pet project that interests you.

or go and spoil a ballot as an expression of how you feel about the available options. too many people forget that they also count spoiled ballots. can you imagine the slate and the campaigns four years from now in a ward - or a city - that tallied more spoiled ballots than the number of ballots that elected someone?

I honestly don't know how to spoil a ballot..I've never had to...so, how do you do it? Does it really make a difference?

It's easy enough in a federal or provincial election. You can spoil your ballot by marking more than one candidate, or writing something like 'none of the above' on the ballot, leaving the ballot blank, or otherwise not follow instructions for casting a valid vote, before folding it and returning it to the poll clerk where they tear the ballot number off.

I don't know how a voter would spoil a CoE ballot though. They run it through a scanner before you leave to verify that it is a valid vote. I suppose you could just tell them that you want to cast an invalid vote and leave, but I don't know how they handle that situation.

Mayor: 12 candidates vs Iveson, and he still gets over 70% of the vote. Not much of a protest vote.
Ward 3: Jon Dziadyk ousts Loken, but I find some of his platform and commentary a bit dodgy. Didn't realize til recently that Karen Principe is the wife of Gene.
Ward 4: Aaron Paquette, first indigenous councillor in several decades.
Ward 5: Sarah Hamilton is in, so it's great to see another female on council, and thank God Xiao didn't win. It probably helped that she had some high-powered help in her corner.
Ward 6: Scott McKeen gets just a shade under 50% of the vote
Ward 7: I was hoping that TonCat was finally on his way out. Oh so close! Maybe if perennial vote wasters like Mimi Williams would just give it up already, Kris Andreychuk might have sealed the deal.
Ward 9: Tim Cartnell seems to have an even-keeled platform, so I hope he's a good voice on council.

“You have to dream big. If we want to be a little city, we dream small. If we want to be a big city, we dream big, and this is a big idea.” - Mayor Stephen Mandel, 02/22/2012

Ward 3: Jon Dziadyk ousts Loken, but I find some of his platform and commentary a bit dodgy. Didn't realize til recently that Karen Principe is the wife of Gene.

His website indicates that he doesn't think city council is supportive enough of the oil industry, wants preferential hiring of veterans for City jobs, wants to lower taxes, wants to reduce funding for downtown projects, but wants to double infrastructure spending in his ward and "secure funding to fix Beaumaris Lake".

Uh, congrats, I guess.

“Son, one day this will be an iconic structure shaping Edmonton’s skyline.”

Ward 3: Jon Dziadyk ousts Loken, but I find some of his platform and commentary a bit dodgy. Didn't realize til recently that Karen Principe is the wife of Gene.

His website indicates that he doesn't think city council is supportive enough of the oil industry, wants preferential hiring of veterans for City jobs, wants to lower taxes, wants to reduce funding for downtown projects, but wants to double infrastructure spending in his ward and "secure funding to fix Beaumaris Lake".

Uh, congrats, I guess.

Yeah he came here to C2E and we offered some criticisms of his platform, nicely, and he stopped talking to us.

This might be the first year since 2004 that I don't vote in a civic election. I don't really care if the same duds get elected or if a new crop of duds take their spots. And there are no major issues to settle this time like the downtown arena or City Center Airport closure.

Then go vote for someone who has a pet project that interests you.

or go and spoil a ballot as an expression of how you feel about the available options. too many people forget that they also count spoiled ballots. can you imagine the slate and the campaigns four years from now in a ward - or a city - that tallied more spoiled ballots than the number of ballots that elected someone?

I honestly don't know how to spoil a ballot..I've never had to...so, how do you do it? Does it really make a difference?

It's easy enough in a federal or provincial election. You can spoil your ballot by marking more than one candidate, or writing something like 'none of the above' on the ballot, leaving the ballot blank, or otherwise not follow instructions for casting a valid vote, before folding it and returning it to the poll clerk where they tear the ballot number off.

I don't know how a voter would spoil a CoE ballot though. They run it through a scanner before you leave to verify that it is a valid vote. I suppose you could just tell them that you want to cast an invalid vote and leave, but I don't know how they handle that situation.

I can’t conceive a reason to spoil a municipal ballot. This level of government thankfully isn’t decided through party politics (though that’s changing).

Moreover anyone that thinks spoiling a municipal election ballot is a good idea, one, should simply have stepped up to the plate themselves and run for office, and two, I’d hope wouldn’t get elected because of that very tendency towards foolish thinking.

Congratulations to all those who were elected or re-elected yesterday in Edmonton, the Edmonton region and the rest of Alberta. And thank you to all those who ran for office who were unsuccessful in your efforts - our entire system depends on people running who are not successful and it would collapse without you.

Congratulations to all those who were elected or re-elected yesterday in Edmonton, the Edmonton region and the rest of Alberta. And thank you to all those who ran for office who were unsuccessful in your efforts - our entire system depends on people running who are not successful and it would collapse without you.

Well said. Thank you for pointing out the immensely value of people stepping up to give voters a choice. Moreover, they learn from each attempt and while their timing and experience may not be the choice of voters on this go around, next time they may be the right person at the right time for the job.

Pathetic. Why does the development community and our elected officials adopt such an imperious attitude towards the citizenry? Because we let them.

Also, the law of averages in a sense means that whenever you hear someone complaining about this or that regarding the City’s operations, or read a critical news article about taxing, spending, services, or whatever, you really have to greatly discount the value of any such opinion as well as its messenger because odds are they themselves didn’t lift a finger to vote.

Then discount the effect of any opinion or criticism on the listeners or readers, because again, odds are that anyone hearing the critique or reading the article, is also unlikely to do a thing themselves about creating change.

So basically two out of every three people you encounter in our city may not have made the most minimal effort to just pop out and vote.

Thank God Iveson won...imagine if one of those turd samples had? Like the guy with the Skullet or Long-Haired-Fedora-hat dude? Whewwww!!!!!!

Skullet Man is Bob Ligertwood, owner/operator of the Naked internet cafe that was on Jasper Ave at 104 St but is now hidden away on 108 St north of 103 Ave. Reading through his website pretty much confirms toxic levels of whacknuttery.http://edmontonmayor.net/

Last edited by Sonic Death Monkey; 18-10-2017 at 10:17 AM.

“You have to dream big. If we want to be a little city, we dream small. If we want to be a big city, we dream big, and this is a big idea.” - Mayor Stephen Mandel, 02/22/2012

So basically two out of every three people you encounter in our city may not have made the most minimal effort to just pop out and vote.

And despite ignoring that minimal effort to register an "official" and meaningful opinion, they'll still assume you have a right to their opinion nonetheless.

Yup. They should come here to c2e instead. My opinions here are mostly about airy fairy stuff anyway, mostly just worthless talk and debate. There’s talkers and there’s doers and at least I get out to vote for the people that all talkers hope are the doers for the City.

City Councillors pretty much know that they can do whatever they want and voters apathy protects them.

That said, I had no real problems with this set of councillors. Mistakes have been made but mistakes out of action rather than inaction. In other words they’re trying rather than just impeding change and cost cutting the city into a deplorable state of decay like we’ve had in the past.

Moreover they show signs of learning. That’s often far more valuable than turfing people and bringing in new greenhorns that then proceed to either repeat past errors. At that point we’re relying on good luck and overarching trends to accidentally create better conditions and facing a 50/50 chance that luck and trends go against use all the while novices are running the show.

Pathetic. Why does the development community and our elected officials adopt such an imperious attitude towards the citizenry? Because we let them.

Also, the law of averages in a sense means that whenever you hear someone complaining about this or that regarding the City’s operations, or read a critical news article about taxing, spending, services, or whatever, you really have to greatly discount the value of any such opinion as well as its messenger because odds are they themselves didn’t lift a finger to vote.

Then discount the effect of any opinion or criticism on the listeners or readers, because again, odds are that anyone hearing the critique or reading the article, is also unlikely to do a thing themselves about creating change.

So basically two out of every three people you encounter in our city may not have made the most minimal effort to just pop out and vote.

I think there’s a couple of reasons for the low turnout. Firstly, the position of mayor is being seen more as that of a spokesperson role than a controlling one (and there is probably some truth behind that changing perspective) albeit hopefully with some leadership. With no strong mayoral race or citywide issue (ie closing the city centre airport), there is no widespread reason to vote. Secondly, we all only get to vote for one councillor even though there are 12 of them tasked with representing us plus the mayor. That means we get to vote for 2 representatives who will each represent 7.7% of the votes on council and we have no say in the makeup of the other 84.6% of them. It's no wonder we feel disconnected and unrepresented and I think that's why so many of us don't bother. It's the price of ward politics and an area where I think we would be better served by having our councillors elected "at large" with every citizen able to vote for a slate of 12 of his choosing. Even if you can’t find 12 people you’re prepared to support, you still cast a ballot in favour of the four or five you do, even if it just allows you to vote for more women on council. As it is, if you can’t support one of those running in your particular ward, other than spoiling a ballot you’re completely disenfranchised.

I think most of a councillors time is spent dealing with whining residents in their ward or trying to help them navigate issues. If the councillors were just 'at large', then the councillor who is most responsive would get deluged, and would then be no longer responsive. Inefficient.

We only get to vote for one MP who gives us less than 0.5% control of the votes, and yet we get higher turnout for that.

"If you don't vote, don't b!tch."
I read that from the liner notes in Steve Earle's Copperhead Road album when I was young and that always stuck with me.

I guess, but for only the second time in my life, in any election, I didn't vote, and didn't even want to. That was my opinion in an election where my ward was decided, where the mayoralty was decided, and there was really no reason to get out there. I would rather have my non vote register as an expression of not believing in this city council. I wonder how different it is for all those others who didn't vote.

I will say that a lot of ridngs other than ward 12 had much better candidates.

"if god exists and he allowed that to happen, then its better that he doesn't exist"

^
^^
The following was my "open letter" to all those on our new council:

"Dear Mayor and Councillors,

Now that this afternoon’s swearing in ceremonies have been completed, please allow me to take this opportunity to congratulate you and to wish you all the best in representing all Edmontonians to the best of your individual and collective ability for the next four years.

You have willingly taken on, either for the first time or once again, a task that I have the utmost respect for and while I’m sure I will not agree with all of your choices either individually or collectively for the next four years, I’m equally sure that all of us will continue to be committed to seeing a city we all love achieve as much as possible during those four years while also planning for the next four decades.

Good Luck!

Ken"

While I am prepared to give Miranda the benefit of a doubt, I found her letter to be a text-book example of reverse prejudice trying to hide accusations as "just assumptions to be proven wrong". If that's what Miranda really would have brought to council if elected, I'm happy I won't have to overcome those prejudices in someone elected to represent me with an open mind without prejudging me on "assumptions needing to be proven wrong". I can't imagine her winning opponent stooping to send Miranda a letter like this but I can unfortunately well imagine Miranda's action if she received one.